Lebanon

Lebanon as a whole has a positive water balance. However, that does not mean that there is enough water available all year round. In fact, there can be a surplus of water during one season and a shortage during another. This is the case in the Bekaa valley, located in the East of Lebanon, close to the Syrian border. Our goal during this project with Acacia Water is, to find a the perfect location to store the excess rain water from the winter months into the underground, which can then be used during the hot and dry summer months for irrigating the crops. This way the water availability and productivity of local farmers will be increased, as it creates a buffer between excess and shortage of water throughout the year. An additional advantage of storing the water in the underground is, that it will be kept safe and protected from exposure to pathogenes and evaporation.

During this particular trip (see the pictures above), we investigated the subsurface to find the perfect spot for our underground water storage. In order to do this, the soil has to be permeable enough to insert and extract the water easily, but not too permeable that is flows away too fast. The way we did this, was using a geophysical measurement, called Electrical Resistivity Tomography, short ERT. Here, we inject electrical currents into the soil (no animals were harmed during the process) and measure how well that current is being conducted through the soil. This gives us information about its permeability.